1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet carrying device and a document processing apparatus using such device, and more particularly to a compact sheet carrying device having two supporting arms that can be concurrently in a deployed state or a retracted state, and a document processing apparatus using such device.
2. Related Art
Document carrying devices, such as a supply tray, a storage tray, a discharge tray and the like, for carrying sheets, such as originals, sheets or printed documents, before and after being processed, are provided on an apparatus, such as a scanner, a printer, a multi-function peripheral or the like, having the document or sheet automatic feeding function. Before processing, the supply tray provides a stable support for the document, and ensures the reference alignment point (line) for the document edge to prevent the skew of the document upon passing the scan or print position. After the documents are processed, the discharge tray supports the processed documents so that the documents can be easily arranged and organized. Sometimes, the discharge tray also provides the document sorting function. For example, the sheet tray or cartridge of a large-scale scanner, printer or multi-function peripheral can accommodate an A4-sized sheet which has a length of 297 millimeters, and can support the full length of the sheet. However, the provision of the full-length document carrying device in a miniaturized scanner, printer or multi-function peripheral inversely restricts the miniaturization of the product, and is not advantageous to the miniaturized development of such product.
In order to solve these problems, some document carrying devices have multiple stages of sheet structures, which can be retracted or deployed. However, after these sheet structures are retracted or folded, the size and weight still cannot satisfy the requirement of the miniaturized product. More particularly, after the sheet structures are folded, the outlook of the product is affected.